Don't make me frog it. You won't like me when I frog it.

All the pretty stones!

I have a confession to make. I have been cheating on my yarn stash with another craft.

Actually I had a beautifully worded post all about it, but guess what. My phone ate it.

I rarely get a chance to get my laptop out these days, and when I do the bazillion updates it demands eats up what time I have to type. So I’m trying to use my phone instead, but it seems not accidentally deleting all my temporary files is actually pretty crucial to the process. Damn.

Anyway, back to my cheating crafting ways (And what I can remember of my original post!)

I definitely spend too much time on Facebook these days (sometimes it’s the closest to adult conversation I get all day!) and at some point at the end of last year I came across the group Love on the Rocks UK, and was struck by what a brilliantly simple idea it was.

It’s not the first group of its kind, but it is one that has taken off in a big way. For the uninitiated, it’s a group dedicated to decorating rocks or stones and hiding them in public for others to find. The details of the Facebook group are on the back of the stone and finders are encouraged to post pictures of their finds and to rehide them for others to find. Of course it’s not uncommon for finders to fall in love with their finds and keep them, but as long as more stones are made and hidden, it’s all good!

With a bit more research (yeah, just more Facebook really) I found there was a local Facebook group called Secret Stones, and the really surprising thing was that the first time we went looking for their rocks at the local park, we found one!

We hid it again (at a different park) but of course now I wanted to decorate some of my own to hide (whilst Claudia was distracted because a toddler and a pretty stone are not easily parted!)

I have a good selection of sharpies, so I tried those first and the colours were a bit dull.

Next I tried acrylic paint as a base with sharpies on top, but the results were patchy and the paint tended to clog the tips of the pens.

I had a go with just the paint, but the results weren’t great.

More research Facebook, and a lot of people were recommending Posca paint pens. As Christmas was coming up I put a multi pack on my wishlist, and lucky old me, Mr BAM came up with the goods!

It was love at first scribble.

What a difference using the right tools makes! I also switched from Poundland yacht varnish, which was messy and took ages to dry, to Plastikote spray varnish, which looks better too.

I started doing some of my favourite characters from my daughter’s cartoons, and when I posted pictures of the ones I was going to hide, people asked where to look for them! The Hey Duggee stone was particularly saught after, so I did some more…

My favourite was Chew Chew the Panda, who even got taken and hidden at the local zoo!

It was definitely time to let my geek flag fly, so I had a go at drawing Baby Groot, then used a YouTube tutorial to learn how to draw a chibi Hulk.

I got a bit cocky then, and did a stone for each of the Avengers, and asked for suggestions too!

I couldn’t believe I had a stone that was just the right shape for the Winter Soldier’s bionic arm!

I love these pens! You can use them on almost anything, including fabric, so I had a go at decorating a cotton drawstring bag as a knitting project bag for my mum. I was quite pleased how it turned out.

It should be washable as I fixed the ink with a hot iron, but I’ve yet to test that theory!